


Hiding Behind A Name

by secretev



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Action, Friends to Lovers, Harry admire Louis, Harry learns from him, I don't know what else to tag ha, Louis adore Harry, Louis is experienced, M/M, Of course they do, Rich man - Freeform, Romance, gorgeous man, spy man
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 11:26:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8977801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretev/pseuds/secretev
Summary: “Why would the government write a rule if later they disrespect it on the back?”
“Sometimes the rule is written just for the sake of it.”
---
After his dad passed away, Harry becomes his dad's replacement in their group of friends slash secret organization. He never expects that he will need to learn how to handle weapons and pretty guy, which of course come in a form of Louis.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Here I go!!  
> so I don't know where the obsession is coming from, but suddenly I love to watch and read anything spy-ly or action with like dark secret and such. and then I just decided to write a story about it. ha!  
> enjoy!!

“Harry, are you ready to go?” a feminine voice can be heard from outside his room.

Harry takes one last look at the mirror, then decided that there is nothing else he would like to do with his appearance, so he walks to his bedside table to pick his phone and wallet, and opens his door.

“Yeah, let’s go, mum.” He says while closing his door.

They walk outside the house, where their driver already stood beside a black Mercedes. The driver, Paul, opens the door for Anne, while Harry gets into the opposite door. As the car starts to drive away, Anne and Harry fill the silence with some small talk.

“So, are you nervous?” Anne looking at her son.

“Should I? I mean, it’s just dinner, right?” Harry replies with a shrug.

“Yes it is, but more often than not they tend to separate men and women group, so it’s possible that I can’t be with you in this first gathering you attend.” She explains.

“Well, I’m a grown man now, mum, so I think I’m going to fine, okay?”

Anne smiles slightly at her son and with a pat on the back of his hand, the conversation ends. They continue their journey for another 30 minutes until they arrived on a five star hotel lobby. They start walking in the direction to restaurant area, but not long after that they meet a middle aged couple who smile kindly toward them.

“Anne! It’s been a long time since I last saw you.” Greet the woman who by now is hugging Anne tightly.

“Karen.” And Anne hugging the woman as tightly.

Harry stands politely beside her mother, not knowing what to do. Fortunately, the man looks at him and smile while offering his hand.

“I assume you’re Harry?” asks the man, and after Harry greets and shakes his hand, the man continues, “I’m Geoff Payne.”.

After seeing that the women has finished their embrace, Geoff starts to talk.

“Anne, I’d like to take Harry with me to the men’s gathering room, since it’s actually on the opposite side of this lobby.”

“Oh, yes, please, Geoff, thank you.” Anne replies, and after the son and mother exchange assurance smiles, they walk to their own supposed destination.

They walk toward a long corridor on the left side of the lobby, and after a few steps, Geoff opens another conversation.

“So, I hope your family coping nicely?” asks Geoff while walking beside Harry.

Harry stiffens a bit, but he tries to smile slightly. “Well, it’s only been a month since dad’s passing, so there’s still some grief here and there. But, yeah, I do believe we’re coping great, thank you.”

Geoff nods. “We don’t actually require you and your mother to come to this month’s gathering, but it’s indeed the perfect time for you to start your participation here.”

“What do you mean?” Harry asks in confusion.

Geoff glances at Harry briefly, then pats him on the shoulder and says, “You’ll get your explanation in due time.”

They continue their walk in silence, and a few moments later they arrived on a glass door that shows a beautiful garden behind it. They step through the door then turn left, where they can see a group of four older men smoking and laughing loudly. Geoff starts approaching them, and Harry follows behind. Upon closer look, he finds himself familiar with two of the men who sits facing him, which are his father’s bestfriends that he’s known of, Simon Cowell and Irving Azoff. 

When they finally arrived, the other two who previously sit with their back on him turns toward him, and Harry needs to blink his eyes a few times and correct his previous assumption. That group doesn’t consist of four older men, it consists of three older men and one very much not old man, also a gorgeous one at that. With his tanned skin, quiffed brown hair and stunning blue eyes, no one can fault Harry for his subtle staring. Although, it seems that Harry should redefine what he considered as subtle, because judging by the man’s smirk while noticing Harry, he seems to perfectly understand what Harry’s been doing.

“Harry?” Geoff’s voice pulls Harry back from his staring, and after clearing his throat, he looks toward all the other men currently looking at him.

“So, I suppose you already know Simon and Irving?” at Harry’s nod, he continues, “So, this one is Bobby Horan,” at this cue the last older man shakes Harry’s hand, “And this young man is Louis Tomlinson, son of Mark Tomlinson.”

Louis smiles toward him, with a bit of a smirk remains, and shakes Harry’s hand for a few moments too long to be considered appropriate, which makes him grin at Louis.

“We’ll start the meeting in ten minutes, okay?” says Simon, and then Geoff joins the other men in their conversation, while Louis looks at Harry.

“Do you mind if I smoke?” Louis asks Harry after they sit not far from the others.

“Well, I’d like it if I don’t get too close to people smoking, but I don’t really mind, no.”

Louis seems to consider it, then throw his cig toward the floor and steps on it.

“Hey, I know that it’s like super late and not the right time and such, but I want to share my condolences for your loss.” Louis says kindly.

“Thank you, Louis.” Harry replies, and then change the topic he’s not actually comfortable yet. “So, I assume you’ve been attending this gathering to fill in your father’s place for quite some time?”

“If you consider six years as quite some time, then yes, it is.” Louis laughs lightly.

“Six?” Harry asks disbeliefingly.

“Well, fortunately they don’t ask me to fill in right away, but waited until I’m 18, so like I have a few years to settle in to my upgraded responsibility of my household before I need to think about this too. Which is why I actually feel a bit sorry for you because you need to do this a month in your grief. But, lucky for you, you don’t have four younger siblings in need of care, and you have me here as a same age friend.” Louis offers a grin for his last sentence.

Harry faintly remembers that Louis’ dad has passed away some ten years ago, and nods with a smile for Louis’ explanation, even though it still leaves him confused.

“So, what’s usually happening in this monthly gathering? Like, Simon said just now something about a meeting?” asks Harry.

“What’s your education major?”

“Ehm, business, why?”

“It’s the same for me, too, so it probably won’t be that hard for you to understand.”

“Care to explain more about it?”

Louis looks at him seriously, and then asks, “What do you know about this group?”

“Not that much, to be honest. Just that they worked in the same corporate, which is the government-owned airport management corporation, and over some unknown factors they bind a close and long-term relationship that last until now, which more or less is about twenty years in.”

“Okay, and do you know each of their most known rank in the company?”

“Well, I know that your father was the company’s president,” to which Louis smiles slightly, “and Simon was the one before your father. My father was CFO in your father’s structure, but I don’t really know about the others.” Harry admits sheepishly.

“It’s fine, you’re quite alright. So, basically, the others are also in some top management position in the company, which I do think play a big role in how this group formed. You know that people with talents like that tend to be seen from earlier stage, and they also tend to notice one and the other.” Louis says to which Harry nods.

“Anyway, that is one factor that you can switch from unknown to known. The other is that they have the same, ehm, disagreement about how the government should run this country. Which is why they try to find a way to do the thing that they think supposed to be done, and this group is their medium to do that discreetly. Before you ask why the discreetness, it’s because of their employment status which is still as a government employee, and some of the activities could be considered… inappropriate.”

“You mean illegal.” Harry cuts his explanation.

“Your words, not mine.” Louis smirks.

“What exactly the example of their activities?”

“It’s mainly focused on things that normally get blocked by governmental rules, like things that can’t be imported to or exported from this country.”

“Care to elaborate?”

Louis cocked his eyebrow, then gestures his pointer finger and thumb towards Harry and makes shoot motion. Harry becomes silent for a second, mouth gaping like not knowing what to say.

“And you agree to participate in this?” Harry asks after a few seconds.

“I do believe that the reason is acceptable, and most of the time we’re not using the thing or supply that we procure directly.”

“Most of the time, okay. Do you guys use that thing directly or do you outsource the activity then?” Harry refers to the weapon gesture that Louis made previously.

“What do you think we look like?”

“Honestly, I thought all of them are an honest and successful business men, but apparently I was wrong, so I don’t know what I think.”

“To revise your statement, they are indeed an honest and very successful business men. There’re just some,… added adjective that could complete the statement.”

“Which is?”

“Well I do think it depends on your further opinion about them, don’t you agree?”

“Fair enough.”

“It doesn’t instantly paint us as bad guys, you know.” At Harry’s silence, Louis continues, “Sometimes we do charity, for like disaster victim and such.” Harry only nods, but doesn’t say anything else.

“So, you do use the thing occasionally.” Harry concludes from Louis’ lack of answer to his previous question.

“Some of us, yeah.”

“Dare I ask who ‘some of us’ include?”

Louis looks at Harry with calculating gaze, then smirks. “You’ll know sooner or later.”

Harry doesn’t dare to push for more. Rather, he chooses to change the topic.

“So, this meeting, what do you usually discuss about?”

“Mainly about what we’re going to do next, or progress of ongoing project.”

“And before, Geoff said that I attend at the right time?”

“Oh, today’s meeting marks half of the annual year, which means we’ll discuss things that happened during the last six months, rather than just last month. And we currently have a sensitive ongoing project which needs more attention and effort than the others. So yeah, it seems that you can’t choose a better time than this.”

“Guess I’ll have to see for myself whether I would do this willingly or not, since it appears clearly that I can’t choose to back out from this even though I decided that we don’t have the same mind set.”

“Perhaps you should also consider your father’s long time participation into your decision making.” Louis suggests with a little smile.

Harry nods, and then they get silence until the older decided that it’s time to do the aforementioned meeting. They all walk inside and toward one of the meeting room. People seem to already have appointed chairs and tasks to do, which makes Harry the only one who seem helpless standing at the bridge of the door. Simon and Louis sit on chairs at the head of the table, while Bobby sets the laptop for presentation and Irving and Geoff stand on right side of the table preparing some papers to distribute. Louis seems to have noticed that Harry haven’t sit anywhere around the table, so he looks at him at the door.

“Harry, what are you doing still standing there? Come seat by my side.” Louis says while gesturing to the chair on the left side of the table closest to him.

Harry doesn’t answer but walk to the mentioned chair and sit there while looking at the front of the room. Papers got distributed, and when Harry reads it, he concludes that he’s currently looking at some kind of transaction records for some coded purchase that he doesn’t really want to know, considering that the transactions amount to about millions of pounds.

“Irving will explain those things later, so if there are some things that you don’t understand, don’t hesitate in asking in the middle of explanation.” Simon says to Harry, seeing the man about to drown in confusion.

Harry smiles gratefully and try to act calm while waiting for the presentation to begin which happens a few minutes later.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen. Today’s meeting will be about evaluation of completed and ongoing projects during January until June period, and further discussion about project …” Irving looks at the paper on his table, “4CE23MDCR. Before we begin, since we should welcome a new member which is Harry Styles, replacement of deceased Des Styles, I would explain brief introduction about this organization and how it operates.”

“This organization stands under the name of Colin Stayhoff, which most people would easily assume as individual name, and it also benefits us to stay under the radar easily. The truth is, the name actually consists of some letters from each of the organization’s founder’s name, which all of them currently sit right in this room. Colin Stayhoff, or in short we called them CS Corp, was founded on December 4th, 19 years ago. 

“Our purpose is to do greater good for this country and its people. We’re trying to achieve it by doing activities that we state as projects, which conclude some activities to helps the government in doing some things that people mostly called as black operations. Basically, things that the government can’t do because of the written rules that the government itself has decided.

“We operates project by project, so no daily activities for us. Some projects come to our attention by our members bringing it up, usually from some issue that they heard, or news on media. Some others come from outside individuals or groups which find and issue of importance, and coincide with our purpose. 

“Before doing the projects, we do the usual background check, risk management, financial and operational plan, and such. Then we’re doing it, either we use our own hands, outsourcing, or collaborate the previous two. After that, we do an overview and evaluation of the completed projects. The duration, efforts, and money spent for each project differs on some factors.

“Anything you would like to ask before we get into the topic?” Irving finishes his explanation and looking at Harry.

“Ehm, so the government knows this organization exist?”

“Many people, included the government, know about Colin Stayhoff’s existence, but not many knows that it stands for an organization. And about their knowledge of our, … participation at their mission, there’s only few people directly in contact with us who know about it, and let’s just say that they will choose to ignore the knowledge should they need to face the question at the future.”

“Why would the government write a rule if later they disrespect it on the back?”

“Sometimes the rule is written just for the sake of it.” Irving says offhandedly.

Harry gets silent at that, and after assuming that Harry was done with his question, Irving continues his explanation to the topic that was stated before. There are three previous projects that were being evaluated, which were about shipment and installment of surveillance systems, the exchange of some package with someone’s employment in government structure, and import of food stock from a country with which their country doesn’t build a partnership regarding food supply. 

During those discussion, Harry takes notes in how Simon and Louis are the one who lead the direction of most of the discussion, and the ones whom the others seems to look for opinion or decision making. Harry concludes that in this organization, the leadership structure from their former company still applied informally, and Louis certainly inherited the same ability and charm that his father has to earn other’s respect.

Sometime Louis would look at Harry questioningly, gives him opportunity to asks things he unables to understand fully. But, in all those time Harry would just shake his head and smile slightly.

“So, our current ongoing project is nearing the end of preparation stage. The outsource company has come to agreement regarding operation plan and details which I don’t see important enough to discuss here. We’ll meet again next Thursday, time decided later to fixate the plan. After that, the project can be executed starting in about three weeks.”

“And we’ve got names of who will handle this operation directly from our side?” Simon asks.

“Oh, please, like you old men would get your hands dirty in this sophisticated play.” Louis comments, which results in a few laughs from the other.

“So it’s decided that you would sacrifice yourself for us then. Nice.” Simon says with flat tone, which Louis responds with a shrug and playful smile.

“I think that it could be a great learning experience for Harry.” Louis added.

At this, Harry turns his head sharply toward Louis who currently looking at him with a smile. The others seem to think about it, but nobody dare to say anything.

“You think it would be good to give him huge responsibilities for his first project?” Simon asks while looking calculatingly toward Harry.

“Why not? And also there’s me to accompany him, so it’s not like you left him alone to feed himself in a jungle full of wild carnivore.”

“Dramatics, Louis.” Simon says with a twitch on his lips.

“I think he can start his participation from the next meeting with our outside contact, and if he deemed himself not ready, then he’ll join in the next project.” Bobby says from behind his laptop.

“Sounds fine to me. Harry?” Simon asks.

Harry gulps nervously, but knowing Louis will be there with him calms him a bit. And, like, better sooner than later, right?

“Okay.” Harry decides while looking at the others.

“Great. Don’t worry, I’ll teach you some things that you need to learn beforehand.” Louis claps his hand while smiling gleefully.

“I don’t even want to know what you’re going to teach him.” Simon mutters.

Irving continues his explanation about this project, and Harry tries to swallow his nervous about his decision and focusing on the explanation. But, after hearing something about spy and high risk, he decides that he has input too much information into his brain for the day and thinks that he could probably asks Louis for further explanation about this. His brain logs out for the rest of the meeting, which fortunately ends about thirty minutes later.

After Irving closes the meeting and all the men stands up either to tidied up their things or to consume the snacks and drinks that was arranged in the back of the room. Harry glances at Louis who seems hurried, judging by how he checked his watch and mutter curses while stacking his paper neatly.

“You’re going to go?” Harry asks him.

Louis looks at him apologetically. “Yeah, I’m already late for other event, because I forget that these two events happening in about a close time between each other. Do you have questions to ask me? Silly me, of course you are, what about this being your first meeting and project and all. Here, give me your phone, I’ll input my number and you can contact me regarding your question.”

Harry hands Louis his phone, and after a few moments, Louis hands it back then greets him before fleeing from the room. Harry just stands there looking at the door, with his phone in his hand, wondering what’s happening to his life.

\---


End file.
